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Why Choose Vintage Business Cards?
You ever walk into a business, and it just grabs your attention with relentless personality? A trendy but rustic barbers’ shop? A Harry Potter-esque wand makers? An alternative Hatter for bikers? You know the kinds of places I mean; you find them in the least likely of places and they blow your mind! Well, you will often find that their business cards carry an equal personality. Why? That’s the magic of a vintage business card right there.
Retro, vintage business cards, whichever term you would like to use usually encompass a smoky, mysterious visage that can implant itself into the minds of many. So how can you harness the power of the vintage business card design? What should you include and why should you get yours from us. Don’t worry, we have the answers, so follow me into this mysterious world and let’s envisage your work of art, with intricate engravings, bold typography, and even gold foil accents if you’d like.
Chapter One: Nostalgia Is Key
The most paramount feature of designing successful vintage style business cards is tugging on heartstrings that may have been dormant for some time, or to put it in one word – nostalgia. But what is nostalgia exactly? And why do we feel it? In simple terms nostalgia is the feeling we get when a positive memory triggers the brains “reward” hormone. Happy memories feel safe, warm and inviting. So, because our minds know that was a safe place, the memory triggers that warm feeling you get when thinking back about those times and the things associated - It’s a bit like time travel for our hearts.
The goal with producing something vintage is to evoke that nostalgic warmth. The business card is the first point at which you can do this and entice people to look further into your niche. Obviously, different designs are better tuned to certain professions, and whilst there’s no rulebook on how you want your design to be, here are some examples that may give you some guidance.
Chapter Two: Tuning Into Your Trade
What is Vintage:
Vintage can mean many things – old school, retro, throwback. They all lend themselves to different generations, so how retro should you go? Let’s look at some professions that may suit a vintage card and try and get some of those nostalgic feels going.
Traditional Tattoo Parlours:
A place full of visual creativity and highly skilled artists, each with their own personality and niche. Each artist area has their own music playing but somehow all the mixed rhythms work in unison. The artisan tools of this centuries old hum away whilst people of all walks of life mask their pain by focussing on the satisfaction of their soon to be complete body art.
You pick up a magazine and a couple of vintage tattoo business cards falls in your lap. The double thick business card design compels you to put the magazine to one side and focus on its rustic charm.
Traditional Barbers:
Leather and steel are the tools of the trade of the modern-traditional barber.
Sandalwood and fresh tobacco fill the air and stimulate your senses. Whilst you wait your turn, you listen to the soulful grooves playing in the shop whilst watching masters of their craft shaping fresh trims.
You glance over at an aged wooden table near the window and see some business cards fanned out.
Hatters:
Fabric adorns every wall, there are traditional tools in eyesight everywhere and steampunk is almost brought completely to life.
An eccentrically dressed gentleman is crafting a 100% bespoke hat for you. He douses the hat in a gentle combustive fluid and burns the suede-leather compound to age the hat. As you watch on, you notice what looks like a charred piece of paper on a nearby seat. Quizzically, you pick it up and are immediately impressed by the unique shape and design of this die cut business card.
Handmade Dealers:
Lamps created from brass instruments; clocks mounted in world-war-era paraphernalia. The scent of leather and brass polish fills the air in this cosy space. Gentle Jazz floats like smoke from a candle.
Rain taps on the window but the golden light reflecting from the beautiful hand-crafted delights sends a wave of nostalgic warmth through you.
A lady approaches you and smiles, holding out a single card she leaves you in peace to just live in the moment and take in the mini business card masterpiece in your hand.
Magic Shops:
Your inner necromancer immediately comes to life when you’re amidst wands, maps and clothing of the mystic arts.
Darkly classical music swims around you whilst the strong perfume of incense transports you to surreal gothic ruins. Near a candelabra on the windowsill lies a single card.
As if containing its own magic, your eyes caress the shimmering golden foiled business card and entices you to pick it up for closer inspection.
Vintage Arcade Venue:
There’s an immediate joyous assault on your senses as the soundtrack of a dozen 80s and 90s era arcade machines sound off. This is the moment you saved your silver for! You’re transported back to the coastal holidays of your youth.
The games pull you in and the inner teenager in you still remembers every winning combination of the joystick and buttons to pull off that killer move. You put 50 pence in the red-lit coin slot, but before you press 1UP, you see the silhouette of a shimmering business card leant up against the brightly lit screen.
Chapter Three: Aligning Elements
One of the big differentiating factors when making a vintage business card for a business rather than a person, is the fact that you get much more creative freedom to express your brand and services. So instead of going with the standard information to put on a business card, you can roll with more of an “art first” design. What we would recommend here is to keep one side dedicated to visuals and then another side informational, similar to the examples above.
Of course you can go as far "retro" as you wish, but don't run the risk of disassociating from your intended audience (as artistically displayed by the Boosh boys above). The key word here is subjective – but try not to let anything put you off your desired design. Go full force into bringing out your professional personality with your epic business card creation. Remember the Guinness adverts? They could be very off-topic but they always got people discussing their product.
Your vintage design should flow onto the rear of your card subtly and now take a step back to let your business details shine through. That’s not to say you have to dial things down. Your information can be built from no end of epic fonts that burst with era-based ethos. You could even go against convention and just have a single, well-placed QR code which will pique the curiosity in anyone that hasn’t yet directly picked up your card.
Addendum:
Nostalgia is personal stuff, but we do all share elements of it so don’t be afraid to embrace those feelings and use it to your advantage. Whatever design you choose, we here at Aura Print have got the experience and technology to make the very fibre of your business cards the best they can be. And worry not if design isn’t quite your forte, our in-house design team can capture your ideas by way of emailing in to us a design brief once you have completed the checkout process.
So get your head in the clouds, gather some nostalgic ideas, and let us help you make a vintage business card that looks… the business.
